Grandmama’s Chocolate Chess Pie

This recipe contains lots of hints and tips for making this wonderful heritage pie. If you’re in a rush and would like to skip straight to the printable recipe card, please click here.

If you have a copy of my latest book, Sweetness, you can see this recipe on page 147 with a beautiful photograph on page 148.

Today I’m sharing one of my grandmother’s recipes with you. Grandmama was one of those people who always lifted the mood in a room whenever she was around. Whether it was her great sense of humor, the way she let life roll off her back, or her twinkle eyed smile, just being around her set your heart at ease.

This recipe is an old fashioned one, and as such it is pretty simple, straight forward, and absolutely delicious. Chocolate Chess pie is rich and fudgey, my daughter says it is like eating brownie batter in pie form – a glowing recommendation if ever I heard one!

I gave my email subscribers a little sneak peek of this recipe before publishing and invited them to share their photos if they made it over the weekend so make sure you check those out at the bottom of the post! I love the response to the recipe sneak peek so I’ll definitely be doing that again. You can get in on the fun by subscribing to my email recipe newsletter (it’s free) by clicking here. After you confirm your subscription you’ll also receive a collection of over 30 printable recipe cards of my family’s favorite suppers!
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*For the pie crust – I am using the roll out pie crusts. You can use one that comes frozen in the pan or even make it from scratch, whatever cranks your tractor. Now, some people get their sense of self worth by the fact that they only make pie crusts from scratch and that’s great for them. When I was five years old my sense of self worth came from being able to write my name. Sometimes it’s the little things, I get that. I’ve made more pie crusts from scratch in my lifetime than I can count and I’m cool with using store bought and saving the mess. Just remember, when trying to decide what to do, that you don’t have anything to prove to anyone and in the scope of affecting the world, choosing a shortcut for a pie crust doesn’t even move the needle.

*Evaporated Milk – in old recipes this is usually referred to as “Pet milk” because PET was a popular brand in the south. This 5 ounce can is just a smidge more than the amount you need but it’s okay to use the entire can or do like I do and take little swig out of it because it is stinking delicious!

Your pie crust does not have to be pretty. The homier it looks the better it will taste. You can do a little thingie like I did here or use a fork or just fold down the edge a bit and call it rustic. In some cities “rustic” sells for double the price ~winks~.

All you have to do is dump all of your ingredients in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer until well combined and fully blended. Then pour into the pan.

Bake this at 350 for 35-40 minutes, or until set in the center.

Note: As you can tell from this photo, my kitchen table is not level. I am sure I could fix this but I never notice it being a problem except for these moments when I find myself photographing a pie on it – so that does not translator to a real life issue for me.

Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before cutting. Dust with confectioner’s sugar if you like.

When my grandmother passed away I inherited her cookbooks. This recipe was written in her beautiful handwriting on a piece of paper that had been stained and worn from generations of use.

Author: Christy Jordan

Ingredients

1+1/2 cups sugar

¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

3+1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup evaporated milk

9 inch pie crust, unbaked

Confectioner's sugar, if desired, to dust the top with

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. Combine sugar, melted butter, cocoa powder, eggs, vanilla, and evaporated milk in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed until well combined, about 1-2 minutes.

Pour mixture into unbaked pie crust and bake until set in the center, 35-40 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Dust with confectioner's sugar, if desired.

Excellent served at room temp or chilled. Store, covered, in the refrigerator.

3.4.3177

READER PHOTOS BELOW!

I sent this recipe out early (before I had even photographed) to my email subscribers and invited them to share their photos. Check out these beauties below! You can subscribe by email in the red box below, just before the comments start.

My Grandma made this awesome pie in North Carolina and I carried on her tradition. I live in Colorado and made 2. Neither set in the middle after 45 mins. So I baked them until Pie Crust was almost brown. I let them sit for an hour, and it is like a custard and can’t slice it. Also the tops was hard and separated. I put one in the fridge to see if that sets it. Any hints on what I did wrong or if I need to adjust for the altitude here in Co.

This sounds like the pie my MOM used to make. I don’t know where she got the recipe. She never put confectioner super on it.
I was so in love with the pie that once when I was young she asked what kind of cake I wanted for my b.d.. I said no, I want your chocolate pie.
Guess what, I got my wishes.
I so hope this is it.

Thank you so much. There is always an empty spot when our Mama’s aren’t with us anymore but I know she is in a better place and there is going to be one jim dandy of reunion supper when we all get to see her again.

I also received this recipe from my grandmother ! She was a fantastic cook and over the years , I’ve made this pie many times. Always a favorite! I always think of my Ma when I make it.
I enjoy your newsletter very much. Your cookbooks are great ! Good down home recipes.

We used to have a store in Memphis called Seessel’s which then was sold to Schnuck’s. They made this pie and a regular chess pie and a lemon chess pie. I bought one of the three every payday to indulge my innermost sweet tooth. I shouldn’t do that to my hypoglycemia as you know but guess I will do it tomorrow anyway since I found my dark chocolate cocoa yesterday. Can’t wait.

I sure miss Seesels as well! They had everything! I made this pie for Thanksgiving. Apparently it was wonderful because I never got a bite! Family ate it up! I’m going to try and make another at Christmas, and maybe get to try it.

I have all 3 of your cookbooks and have made hardly anything:(, not just out of yours, out of the many new ones I have. Just so busy with work, home chores, and just stuff. I really need to just slow down and take some me time. I will make time, and make this pie this weekend. Never had chess pie. We live in Illinois and want to move to Tennessee in about 6 years, better start making some of these southern recipes.

Oh my! My Maw-Maw (Grandmother) used to make one similar if not the same as this one. Brings back old memories. She sure could cook! Only if I could cook half as well as she could…I’d be in business then! lol Thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe. Have a blessed day.

My sister-in-law, who was 50 years old and passed away in 1989 from breast cancer, used to make this pie all the time. I pulled out her recipe to check the ingredients and it’s exactly the same. It is a wonderful recipe and brought back sweet memories of her. Thanks for posting it, as I’m sure others will really enjoy it.

Well, I would have sent you a picture of my pie, but it wasn’t completely cooled (because we just couldn’t wait) when I cut it, and it ran and didn’t look too very pretty…..BUT still tasted delicious! And after I put it in the fridge overnight, the rest was perfectly fine when I sliced it!! Almost gone now… Thanks for the easy recipe!

Hi y’all!
This is Emily. I substituted the sugar for splenda (You can use other sweeteners too). I might reduce the splenda next time. I used heavy cream instead of evaporated milk. I searched pinterest to find a low carb press in the pan crust recipe. It was easy and allowed me to try Mrs. Christy’s amazing recipe!! I kept the pie ingredient measurements the same even though I changed the sugar and evaporated milk. I thought this may be good with orange zest grated in. It also may be good with a little bit of peanut butter mixed into the filling.

Will wonders never cease? I torture myself by looking at recipes all day long and happened to be browsing your wonderful site when this recipe popped up. It looks so good and I just so happen to have all the ingredients on hand to make it. My son is going to be so happy! (And so will I!!!) 🙂

I purchased your cook book Sweetness .. actually, I have all of your cook books but still love to read your posts! My Mom made this pie and never had a recipe but when I made yours, it was exactly like hers!! Thank you for all that you share with us. So few people have the memories and recipes that were so common back in my day! I’m trying to share with my Nieces so that they can put ‘Maw Maw Mable’ on their table!!!

Betty, I have no idea why it is called “chess” pie. I just know that the plain chess recipe has been around longer than 75 yrs. because my great-aunt would make the best ones every time my mom’s family got together. That is all I knew about until I moved from MO to TX.
I learned about chocolate chess from the lady who helped “raise my eldest son”. Aunt Bea’s recipe is very, very similar to this, but hers also has a Tbsp of corn meal in it. You can’t taste it nor can you really “feel” it. It’s just part of her recipe—that came from her mother.
Same scenario with lemon chess. Had never heard of it until coming to TX. However, that one is my least favorite.
I had to move both my parents from MO to TX with me back in 2001. For 3 wks. straight in MO (Mom had a stroke and Dad had Alzheimers) I baked a plain chess pie EVERY day. Same thing happened pretty much after they came to TX. Had to have a chess pie and potato soup, and neither one cared if they ate anything else or not. I would love to have them here now to bake another plain chess pie and make a pot of potato soup just for them.

The legend goes that cooks loved making this pie due to the simplicity and delicious taste but, being a simple pie, when a southern cook was asked what kind of pie it was she replied “Oh, it’s jes pie.”
And that was interpreted as chess pie per the pronounciation. That’s the story at least 🙂

Why does this make me chuckle a little…I can just see someone saying that. Kinda interesting how things come about. Like black-eyed peas on New Years. Thanks for your efforts to keep us informed cooks!

Oh my! I have already made a note to make both of these for our family Easter celebration. Of course I plan to make both of them very soon for my family here at home. Also going to get my bread maker out for the recent bread recipe! I have just got to get my canned pineapple juice.

Christy,
I tried this tonight, but didn’t have evaporated milk. Seeing that someone else made it with heavy cream I subbed that for the evaporated milk. I used a store pie crust (in the pan) that I pulled from the freezer, without thawing. I set a timer for 35 min. and when the timer was up the pie was still jiggly in the center. I had to take it out so the crust wouldn’t burn, as it was already getting dark. Was I supposed to put foil around the edges of the crust to keep it from burning? Or, do you think the heavy cream was the reason it wasn’t set in the center when I took it out of the oven?

Hey Missy!! You can certainly cover the crust to prevent over browning or burning but I generally don’t have to with this pie. It sounds like your oven may be cooking a little hotter than mine as I don’t believe an equal amount of heavy cream would be a problem. If you went ahead and covered and refrigerated the pie it is most likely set now and ready to eat. Next time I would try lowering the temp 25 degrees and adding about ten minutes to the cook time.

Thanks for your reply Christy. I put the pie in the refrigerator overnight and it set up better than when it first cooled (and I like it better cold). The flavor is really good, but it is different from the stovetop cooked chocolate pie we usually make. It’s a nice change, and I will be adding this recipe to my box. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

I love chess pies. My grandmother made them my whole life. It wouldn’t have been the holidays without her chocolate chess pie. It’s one of my most treasured recipes I have of hers. She has passed but making this pie always keeps her close to my heart. I made her version this past Christmas. It touches my heart when I make it and then the flavors when I eat it, remind me of such sweet warm and happy memories of a much beloved grandmother. My grandmother’s is a little different, it has cornmeal and vinegar in it. She also made pineapple chess along with the lemon chess. Just good old fashioned pies. Simple ingredients but gloriously good. Great post. Thank God for Grandmothers. I’m totally loving that pie plate too! I see you posted where to get that too! 🙂

Have never made the chocolate version so can’t wait to make it for my son. Chess pie is his fave! Thanks for telling us where to get the iron pie pan. Now I want the beautiful white plate you show! Please share more information about it. Reminds me of milk glass!

What cranked my tractor was 2% milk cuz I had it and 3 small eggs cuz eggs are so small. It took longer to cook but the crust did not burn. Thank God I had just enough cocoa to make 2 pies cuz the store bought are in a 2-pack. I thought I read you liked it with whipped cream so I planned to make some fresh for the first time in my life but I don’t see that in the post today. However I will be checking for CHRISTY’s recipe on homemade whipped cream just in case…

May I ask, what is the benefit of the cast iron pie pan? I use my Grandmother’s cast iron skillets, but didn’t even know there were cast iron pie pans! I have my Mother in laws recipes for 3 kinds of chess pies and am going to compare them with yours. I enjoy reading your newsletters and have all 3 of your cookbooks.

Thank you for the recipe. I had this last summer in Nashville at Prince’s Hot Chicken and have been meaning to make one ever since. This will be the first thing I do tomorrow morning! Yes, I thought it tasted like brownie batter too, and I had no idea it would be so easy.

I’m so sorry! I’m afraid it could be any number of things. I’ve never had a fail with this pie but I’m making it with the same variables each time (same oven so same temp, etc). The first thing I would look at is your oven temp. I would add five to ten minutes to the cook time, covering the crust with foil to prevent browning if needed, then make sure you let it cool complete, cover, and refrigerate until fully chilled. 🙂

Thank you for this southern delight! It is so, so simple and decadent. My crust did not cook enough so the second time I pre-cooked the crust a little and and that worked great! Thanks again and Merry Christmas!

Hi Christy. This recipe looks amazing. An actual large pie doesn’t go over well in my house, it tends to get tossed, no matter what kind it is. However, and oddly enough, tarts go like mad! Is there a way to make these as tarts with a more Graham cracker crust, like the ones you might purchase in a store? Find that this kind of crust makes desserts seem “lighter” than using a regular pie crust.

Oh, Christy, thank you for the hysterical visual in explaining the “Pet Milk”. You wrote that and I imagined someone much younger than me thinking they needed to milk their dog or cat. Weird how living on a farm changes the way you look at things! Thank you for sharing such an awesome family recipe…I’ll be sharing it on facebook!

🙂 I think whatever walk we are on changes how we think in many different ways. Isn’t it odd to think about it and perhaps what other people perceive as being fact? Thank you so much for sharing it Susan, I hope you get the chance to enjoy a slice of pie soon!

Just removed from oven. Looks so pretty. Will serve tomorrow (Easter Sunday). My son in laws favorite pie. Just wanted to try a new recipe. Think, I am glad I did. Did not cover edges, crust perfect on 350 degrees. So hungry right now, sure wish I could cut it but I cannot.